Ahab had seventy sons living in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria to the leading officials of Jezreel and to the guardians of Ahab's dynasty. This is what the letters said,

"Now, when this letter comes to you and your master's sons [are] with you, the chariots [are] with you, the horses, a fortified city, and weapons,

So the palace supervisor, the city commissioner, the leaders, and the guardians sent this message to Jehu, "We are your subjects! Whatever you say, we will do. We will not make anyone king. Do what you consider proper."

Then he wrote to them a second letter, saying, "If you [are] for me, and you [are] listening to my voice, take the heads of the men of the sons of your master and come to me at [this] time tomorrow at Jezreel." Now the sons of the king, seventy men, [were] with the leaders of the city who were raising them.

Keep this in mind not a single statement by the LORD will fail to come about that he spoke concerning Ahab's dynasty, because the LORD has accomplished what he predicted by his servant Elijah."

Therefore summon all of Baal's prophets to me, including all his worshipers and all his priests. Don't leave even one out, because I've prepared a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever doesn't show up doesn't live!" But Jehu did this deceptively, intending to destroy Baal's worshippers.

So they broke down the stone pillars of Baal and destroyed the temple of Baal and made it into a latrine until this day.

He commanded them, saying, "This [is] the thing which you must do: one third of you {who go off duty on the Sabbath}, the keepers of the guard in the house of the king,

"Here's what we'll do: A third of you will enter here on this coming Sabbath dressed as guardians of the watch for the king's palace, with a third of you at the Sur gate, and a third at the gate behind the guards. Keep watch over the palace and defend it.

Two of you who enter here on this coming Sabbath are to stand watch at the LORD's Temple,

Jehoiada the priest ordered the officers of the units of hundreds, who were in charge of the army, "Bring her outside the temple to the guards. Put the sword to anyone who follows her." The priest gave this order because he had decided she should not be executed in the Lord's temple.

After this, everyone throughout the land rejoiced and the city was at peace, because they had executed Athaliah at the king's palace.

Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest and the [other] priests and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the damage of the house (temple)? Now then, do not take any more money from your acquaintances, but turn it all over for [the repair of] the damages of the house.” [You are no longer responsible for this work. I will take it into my own hands.]

Elisha said, "Open the east window," and he did so. Elisha said, "Shoot!" and he did so. Elisha said, "This arrow symbolizes the victory the Lord will give you over Syria. You will annihilate Syria in Aphek!"

After this Elisha said, "Pick up the arrows." So the king picked them up. Then Elisha told the king of Israel, "Strike the ground!" So he struck it three times and then stood still.

At this, the man of God became angry at him and told him, "You should have struck five or six times! Then you would have attacked Aram until you would have destroyed it! But as it is now, you'll defeat Aram only three times!"

But the Lord had mercy on them and felt pity for them. He extended his favor to them because of the promise he had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has been unwilling to destroy them or remove them from his presence to this very day.

He also killed ten thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt, and he seized Sela in the battle, and he called its name Jokteel, until this day.

King Jehoash of Israel sent this message back to King Amaziah of Judah, "A thornbush in Lebanon sent this message to a cedar in Lebanon, 'Give your daughter to my son as a wife.' Then a wild animal of Lebanon came by and trampled down the thorn.

Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thy heart hath lifted thee up: glory of this, and tarry at home: for why shouldst thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldst fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?

Judah was defeated before Israel and they fled, each to this tent.

All of the people of Judah took sixteen-year-old Azariah and made him king in place of this father Amaziah.

This is the word of Yahweh which he spoke to Jehu, saying, "Sons of a fourth [generation] shall sit for you on the throne of Israel," and it was so.

Menahem got this silver by taxing all the wealthy men in Israel; he took fifty shekels of silver from each one of them and paid it to the king of Assyria. Then the king of Assyria left; he did not stay there in the land.

At that time, Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram and drove out the Judeans from Elath. The Arameans came to Elath and have lived there until this day.

King Ahaz traveled to Damascus and met with King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, where he observed the altar at Damascus. So King Ahaz sent a set of construction patterns of this altar to Uriah the priest.

Urijah the priest acted in accordance with everything that King Ahaz commanded.

After this, the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, approached Samaria, and began a three year siege.

Now [this] happened because the {Israelites} had sinned against Yahweh their God when he brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt and they feared other gods.

They served idols which Yahweh had said to them, "You shall not do this thing!"

The Lord solemnly warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and all the seers, "Turn back from your evil ways; obey my commandments and rules that are recorded in the law. I ordered your ancestors to keep this law and sent my servants the prophets to remind you of its demands."

until Yahweh removed Israel from his presence as he had foretold by the hand of all his servants, the prophets. And so he deported Israel from upon his land to Assyria until this day.

So the king of Assyria issued this order: "Take one of the priests whom you carried away and let him go back and live there. Let him teach them the law of the god of the land."

But each of these nations made its own gods and put them in the shrines on the high places that the people of Samaria had made. Each nation did this in the cities where they lived.

Until this day they [are] doing according to their former customs; none of them [are] fearing Yahweh, and none of them [are] doing according to their statutes, to their decisions, to the law, or to the commands that Yahweh commanded the descendants of Jacob [to] which he had given the name Israel.

So these nations were fearing Yahweh, but they were serving their idols, as were their children and their children's children; as their ancestors did, they [are] doing until this day.

He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; in this regard there was none like him among the kings of Judah either before or after.

And it will be in the fourth year to king Hezekiah, this the seventh year to Hoshea son of Elah, king of Isreel, Shalmaneser, king of Assur, came up against Shomeron and pressed, upon it.

And he will take it from the end of three years: in the sixth year to Hezekiah, this the ninth year to Hoshea, king of Israel, Shomeron was taken.

After this, the king of Assyria carried Israel off into exile in Assyria, settling them in Halah, on the Habor River in Gozan, and in cities controlled by the Medes,

This happened because they did not obey the Lord their God and broke his agreement with them. They did not pay attention to and obey all that Moses, the Lord's servant, had commanded.

King Hezekiah of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria, who was at Lachish, "I have violated our treaty. If you leave, I will do whatever you demand." So the king of Assyria demanded that King Hezekiah of Judah pay three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

Then the chief advisor said to them, "Please say to Hezekiah: 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: "What [is] this confidence that you trust?

Now, look! You {rely} on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which [when] a man leans on it, it goes into his hand and pierces it! So [is] Pharaoh the king of Egypt for all who are trusting on him!

But if you say to me, 'On Yahweh our God we trust,' [is] it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, and he had said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'In the presence of this altar you shall bow down [only] in Jerusalem?'

Have I now come up against this place without Yahweh to destroy it? Yahweh has said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it!'" '"

At this, Hilkiah's son Eliakim, Shebnah, and Joah asked Rab-shakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it, but don't speak the language of Judah to us within the hearing of the people who are on the wall."

But Rab-shakeh spoke to them, "Has my master sent me to talk about this just to your master and to you, and not also to the men who are sitting on the wall, who will soon be eating their own feces and drinking their own urine along with you?"

This is what the king says: 'Don't let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you from my hand!

Do not let Hezekiah [make you] trust in Yahweh, saying, "Certainly Yahweh will rescue us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria!" '

Don't listen to Hezekiah!' For this is what the king of Assyria says, 'Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord's temple.

He sent Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, clothed in sackcloth, with this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz:

They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'A day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace is this day, for the children {are about to be born}, but there is no strength to bear them.

Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. So pray for this remnant that remains.'"

Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master this: 'This is what the Lord says: "Don't be afraid because of the things you have heard -- these insults the king of Assyria's servants have hurled against me.

"This is what the LORD says: "Never be afraid of the words that you have heard by which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Look! I'm going to cause an attitude to grow within him so that he'll hear a rumor and return to his own territory, where I'll make him die by the sword in his own land!"'"

The king had heard this about Tirhakah king of Cush: “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

"Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: 'Don't let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, "Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria."

Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: "This is what the Lord God of Israel says: 'I have heard your prayer concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria.

This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: She despises you, she scorns you, the virgin daughter of Zion. Behind you the daughter of Jerusalem shakes [her] head.

Certainly you must have heard! Long ago I worked it out, In ancient times I planned it; and now I am bringing it to pass. The plan is this: Fortified cities will crash into heaps of ruins.

This is why their townsmen had no power, they were broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field and the green plant, like grass on the house-tops.

" 'This will be the sign for you: Eat the volunteer plants for the year, and in the second year, the volunteer plants that spring up from that. But [in] the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

For from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out and survivors from Mount Zion; the zeal of Yahweh will do this.

" 'Therefore thus says Yahweh to the king of Assyria, "He shall not come to this city, nor shall he shoot an arrow there, nor shall he bring a small shield near her, nor shall he cast a siege ramp against her.

By the way that he came to her he shall return; but to this city, he shall not come," declares Yahweh.

And I will defend this city to save her for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.'"

In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, "This is what the Lord says, 'Give your household instructions, for you are about to die; you will not get well.'"

Before Isaiah had left the middle court, this message from the LORD came to him.

"Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: 'This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: "I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. The day after tomorrow you will go up to the Lord's temple.

I will add to your days fifteen years, and from the hand of the king of Assyria I will deliver you and this city. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of David my servant." '"

Isaiah said, "This [is] the sign for you from Yahweh that Yahweh will do the thing that he has promised: Shall the shadow advance ten steps or shall it return ten steps?"

Hezekiah was delighted at this, and showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah did not show them.

Then Isaiah replied to Hezekiah, "Listen to this message from the LORD:

'Look, days [are] coming when all that is in your palace will be carried off; [even] all that your ancestors have stored up until this day, to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says Yahweh.

At this, Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, "What you've spoken from the LORD is good," because he had been thinking, "Why not, as long as there's peace and security in my lifetime"?"

He put the image of the Asherah that he had made in the temple which Yahweh had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this temple and in Jerusalem which I have chosen from all of the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

So this is what the Lord God of Israel says, 'I am about to bring disaster on Jerusalem and Judah. The news will reverberate in the ears of those who hear about it.

I will abandon this last remaining tribe among my people and hand them over to their enemies; they will be plundered and robbed by all their enemies,

because they have done evil in my eyes and were provoking me from the day that their ancestors came out from Egypt up to this day.'"

Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another. This was in addition to his sin that he caused Judah to commit. Consequently, they did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.

Eight years old, was Josiah when he began to reign, and, thirty-one years, reigned he in Jerusalem, - and, this mother's name, was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah, of Bozkath.

"Go, inquire of Yahweh for me and for the people and for all of Judah concerning the words of this scroll [that was] found. For the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us [is] great because our ancestors did not listen to the words of this scroll to do according to all that is written concerning us!"

and she said to them: "This is what the Lord God of Israel says: 'Say this to the man who sent you to me:

"Thus says Yahweh, 'Look I am bringing evil to this place and upon its inhabitants, [according to] all of the words of that scroll that the king of Judah has read

because they have abandoned me and they have burned incense to other gods, provoking me to anger with all of the works of their hands. My wrath shall be kindled against this place and not be quenched.'"

Say this to the king of Judah, who sent you to seek an oracle from the Lord: "This is what the Lord God of Israel says concerning the words you have heard:

because you have a responsive heart, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants to become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before my face, I have also heard, declares Yahweh.

Therefore look, I am gathering you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your tombs in peace. Your eyes will not see all of the disaster that I am bringing onto this place.'" '" Then they {reported the word} to the king.

At this, the king sent for and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

Then the king stood by the pillar, and he {made} a covenant before Yahweh, to go after Yahweh and to keep his commands and his warnings and his statutes, with all of [his] heart and with his all of his soul, to keep the words of this covenant written on this scroll. Then all of the people {joined} in the covenant.

When Josiah turned around, he saw the tombs there on the hill. So he ordered the bones from the tombs to be brought; he burned them on the altar and defiled it. This fulfilled the Lord's announcement made by the prophet while Jeroboam stood by the altar during a festival. King Josiah turned and saw the grave of the prophet who had foretold this.

Then he said, "What [is] this gravestone that I [am] seeing?" The men of the city said to him, "[This is the] tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel."

Then the king commanded all of the people, saying, "Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as has been written on the scroll of this covenant.

For they had not kept this Passover from the days of the judges who had judged over Israel {or} [during] the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept for Yahweh in Jerusalem.

Josiah also got rid of the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord's temple.

Yahweh had said, "Even Judah I will remove from my face, as I have removed Israel; I will reject this city that I have chosen, even Jerusalem and the house [of] which I said, 'My name shall be there'!"

Surely at the commandment of Yahweh came this on Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did,